Managing Custom Hours Structures

⚡ What Are Custom Hours Structures?

A Custom Hours Structure lets you create unique overtime rules that apply to specific employees or, for Canadian businesses using our multi-payroll-cycle feature, to specific Locations. Instead of relying on the company-wide Hours Structure to determine how overtime is calculated and paid out to all eligible employees, you can assign different structures with different overtime rules.

For example, you might have a group of employees on an averaging agreement in which overtime doesn't apply, while the rest of your team continues to follow the standard company-wide overtime rules.

Setting one up is a two-step process: first, create the structure itself, then assign it—either to an employee's position or to a specific Layered-Location (Canada only using the multi-payroll cycle feature). See the Location-Based Custom Hours Structures section below for details on the latter.

📌 | Note: Custom Hours Structures apply only to hourly employees. Overtime isn't automatically calculated and paid out for salaried employees, so assigning a Custom Hours Structure to one won't have any effect.

🔎 Why Use Custom Hours Structures?

• Accommodates unique agreements: Apply different overtime rules for employees on an averaging agreement or another arrangement that differs from your company-wide policy.
• Flexible thresholds: Define unique hour ranges for Overtime and Doubletime—for example, overtime starting after 10 hours rather than 8.
• Reusable across employees: Once created, a Custom Hours Structure can be assigned to any number of employees via their position who need to follow the same rules.
• Doesn't affect the rest of your team: Employees not assigned a Custom Hours Structure continue to follow the company-wide Hours Structure as normal.

📌 | Note: Overtime rules and eligibility for arrangements like averaging agreements vary by province and state and can be complex. We recommend reviewing your province or state's employment standards to confirm compliance before setting up a Custom Hours Structure.

🔐 Access required

Custom Hours Structures are available with the Payroll Add-On. 

📌 | Note: For the platform to automate calculating and paying hourly employees for overtime, it also requires the use of our Time Tracking feature. 

Who can create and edit Custom Hours Structures?

• Super Administrators: Full access to create, edit, and delete Custom Hours Structures.

Who cannot create and edit Custom Hours Structures?

• Team Administrators: Do not have access to create or edit Custom Hours Structures.

Who can assign a Custom Hours Structure?

• Super Administrators: Full access to assign a Custom Hours Structure to any employee's Position or request it be assigned to a specific Layered-Location.
• Team Administrators: can update a Custom Hour Structure assigned to an employee's role if the Employee Setup: Employee Position Info permission is enabled. And must have permissions to the relevant Employee Groups under Update Employee Information, View Employee Information, and View Employee List. If you are unable to access, please confirm your permissions with a Super Administrator.

📋 Topics covered in this article:

• Creating a Custom Hours Structure
• Editing a Custom Hours Structure
• Assigning a Custom Hours Structure (Employee Position or Layered-Location)
• Re-syncing Clocks After a Custom Hours Structure Change
• Frequently Asked Questions About Custom Hours Structures

📚 Related articles:

• Managing The Hours Structure
• Managing Employee Positions

Creating a Custom Hours Structure

Create a Custom Hours Structure whenever a specific employee or group of employees needs to follow overtime rules that differ from your company-wide Hours Structure.

1. In the top-right corner, click the Company Name.
2. In the drop-down menu, click Company Setup.
3. On the left-hand navigation bar, click Custom Hours Structure.
4. In the middle of the page, click New.
5. Under Title, enter a clear, recognizable name your team can easily identify — for example, No OT or Overtime Over 10 Hours.
6. Check or uncheck the Overtime (OT) and Doubletime (DT) boxes depending on which apply to this structure, and set the Ranges and Rates for each.
   1. If a specific type of overtime doesn't apply to this structure — for example, no Doubletime — uncheck the box to disable it.
7. If Weekly Overtime applies, check the box and set the Start (Day of the) Week, and select Regular or Total under Hours Used.
8. Once done, click Save.
9. The page will refresh and list the new Custom Hours Structure. If you need more structures, click New and repeat the same process.
10. After creating a Custom Hour Structure, you now must assign it to the relevant employees or request it be assigned to a layered-location. See the section below for next steps: 

💡 | Tip: Here's what a "No OT" Custom Hours Structure looks like: Overtime, Doubletime, and Weekly Overtime are all unchecked, so hours are paid at the regular rate regardless of how many are worked. And here's an example of an "Over 10 Hours" structure: Regular hours run from 0 to 10, Overtime covers hours 10 to 12, and Doubletime begins after 12 hours.

Editing a Custom Hours Structure

Update an existing Custom Hours Structure any time the agreement it's based on changes. 

⚠️ | Important: Editing a Custom Hours Structure only applies moving forward from the date it's saved and does not automatically apply retroactively. If you need the change to apply to hours already clocked in the current pay period, you'll need to request a clock resync by our PUSH Support Team. Please see the Resyncing Clocks After a Custom Hours Structure Change section below.

1. In the top-right corner, click the Company Name.
2. In the drop-down menu, click Company Setup.
3. On the left-hand navigation bar, click Custom Hours Structure.
4. Complete one of the following:
   1. If you wish to update an existing structure, click the pencil icon in the top-right of the Custom Hours Structure you want to update.
      1. Update the Title, Overtime (OT)/Doubletime (DT) boxes, Ranges, Rates, or Weekly Overtime settings as needed.
      2. Once done, click Save.
   2. If you wish to delete an existing structure, click the pencil icon in the top-right of the Custom Hours Structure you want to update.
      1.  click Delete in the top-right of the Custom Hour Structure you want to remove. 
         1. In the pop-up, click OK to proceed or Cancel to go back a step. 
            ⚠️ | Warning: We recommend reviewing with your team prior to deleting, as it will also be removed from any employees positions or location, and they will be assigned back to the company default Hour Structure. 
         2. If OK is selected, the page will refresh and the structure will no longer exist.

Assigning a Custom Hours Structure

Creating a Custom Hours Structure is only the first step, it must be assigned before it takes effect. Until it's assigned, employees continue to follow the company-wide Hours Structure. There are two ways to assign one: to an individual employee's Position, or, for eligible multi-location, multi-cycle accounts, to a Location.

Option 1: Assigning a Custom Hours Structure to an Employee's Position

Assigning a Custom Hours Structure to an employee's Position is the best option when most of your team follows the company-wide Hours Structure, but a specific employee (or a handful), needs to follow different overtime rules. 

It's also useful for an employee who holds multiple roles, and maybe only one of those Positions follows different rules. You can assign the Custom Hours Structure to just that Position, while their other Position continues to follow the company default.

1. Click the Employees tab.
2. Select the appropriate Employee List on the left-hand navigation bar: Active, Pending, Inactive, or On Leave List.
3. Search for the employee, and under Edit, click the pencil icon next to their name.
4. Click Salary on the left-hand navigation bar, or scroll to Add/Update/Salary Position.
5. The page will load to the employee salary page, and under Active Positions locate the specific role that you wish to assign the structure to. On the right-hand side, click Edit Position.
   💡 | Tip: Under each Position's title, you'll see its current Hours Structure. It'll show 'Company Default Setup' if the Position is following the default Hours Structure, or the title of the assigned Custom Hours Structure (e.g., No OT).
6. Under Hours Structure, click the drop-down menu and choose the Custom Hours Structure you want to assign.
7. Once done, click Update Position.
8. The page will refresh back to the employees salary page, and you'll see under the positions title, the Hours Structure details updated! 

📌 | Note: If a business also has a Custom Hours Structure linked to a Location (see the section below), a Position-level assignment always takes precedence over a Location-level one.

Option 2: Location-Based Custom Hours Structures for Multi-Cycle Payrolls

For multi-location businesses running multiple payroll cycles, a Custom Hours Structure can also be linked directly to a Location—essentially giving that Location its own default Hours Structure, since the company-wide Hours Structure would otherwise apply equally to every Location. 

This is a faster way to apply the same overtime rules to everyone working out of a Location, without assigning a Custom Hours Structure to each employee's Position individually. When an employee clocks in, the platform uses the overtime rules tied to their home payroll Location—not the Location where the hours were physically worked.

Linking a Custom Hours Structure to a Location isn't self-serve at this time, it's configured by the PUSH Support team.

1. Send an email to support@pushoperations.com.
2. Let them know which Custom Hours Structure you'd like linked, and which Location it should apply to.
3. Once linked, you can confirm the assignment by opening that Custom Hours Structure's details, the Location it's tied to will be listed there. If no Location has been linked, it will show No Location Assigned instead.

📌 | Note: The platform follows this order to decide which Hour Structure to use: First, it checks whether a Custom Hours Structure is assigned to the employee's Position. If there isn't one, it reviews if a Custom Hours Structure is linked to a Layered-Location (or Home Payroll Location). If neither applies, the company-wide Hours Structure will apply. 

Re-syncing Clocks After a Custom Hours Structure Change

Whether you've assigned a new Custom Hours Structure or made changes to an existing one, updates apply moving forward from the date they're saved; it does not automatically apply retroactively.

If you need the changes to apply to clock entries already recorded in the current pay period but are before the date you saved the changes, you'll need to request a clock re-sync from the PUSH Support Team. 

1. Send an email to support@pushoperations.com.
2. Title the email: Resync Clocks for Custom Hours Structure.
3. Include your Company Name and a Start Date — either the start date of the current pay period or a specific date of when you want the changes to be applied moving forward.

Frequently Asked Questions About Custom Hours Structures

Have questions about setting up or assigning Custom Hours Structures? Whether you're wondering who can make changes, what happens if you skip the clock resync, or how many employees can share one structure, this section provides quick answers to help you manage overtime with confidence.

Q: Can more than one employee be assigned to the same Custom Hours Structure? 
A: Yes. Once created, a Custom Hours Structure can be assigned to any number of employee Positions that need to follow the same overtime rules. If an employee holds multiple Positions, each Position can be assigned a different Custom Hours Structure—but each Position can only follow one Hours Structure at a time.

Q: I assigned a Custom Hours Structure — will it recalculate hours already worked this pay period? 
A: Not automatically. It will only apply from the date you updated the Employee Profile's Position. To apply it retroactively within the current pay period, you will need to contact our PUSH Support Team to sync back your clocks. 

Q: What's the difference between the Hours Structure and a Custom Hours Structure? 
A: The Hours Structure is the default overtime setup that applies to all hourly employees company-wide. A Custom Hours Structure overrides the default for specific employees you assign it to. For details on the default setup, refer to our Managing the Hours Structure article.

Q: Can I link a Custom Hours Structure to a specific Location instead of an employee Position?
A: Yes, if your business runs multiple payroll cycles across more than one Location and has the Payroll add-on—this is currently only available to Canadian customers. This setup is configured by PUSH Support rather than within the platform. For more details, refer to the Location-Based Custom Hours Structures for Multi-Cycle Payrolls section above.

Q: If an employee's Position and their home Location both have a Custom Hours Structure assigned, which one applies?
A: The Position-level assignment takes precedence. If the Position doesn't have one assigned, PUSH falls back to the Location-level assignment, and if neither applies, the company-wide Hours Structure is used.

Q: Does a Custom Hours Structure apply to salaried employees? 
A: No. Custom Hours Structures only apply to hourly employees. Overtime isn't automatically calculated and paid out for salaried employees, so assigning a Custom Hours Structure to one won't have any effect.

Administrators can include overtime for salaried employees, but it will need to be created through Earnings & Deductions. 

Additional Information

Need further help? Refer to our Getting Help & Contacting Support article for the latest support options and ways to connect with our team.